What's Going On With S Gauge?

[Anonymous]

Two or three years ago, it looked like S gauge was headed toward a revival. Now, you don't hear or read too much about it. Lionel owns the rights to American Flyer but they certainly haven't done much in the past, and probably will do little or nothing in the future. I thought K-Line might do something, but other than a few bones, nothing much from them either. The two current players, SHS and American Models, put out nice products but at a snails pace. Does it have a future or will it be like what Standard gauge is now? In fact, I think there's a lot more interest in Standard gauge than S gauge.

What are your thoughts?

[prewardude]

I think it still has a future, but how big of a future, I'm not sure. As you said, American Models and S-Helper are doing a good job (albeit slowly), but Lionel really needs to get on the ball with S gauge. Considering the set-backs they are going through with the lawsuit, yet ANOTHER new CEO, etc., etc., I don't see them doing a whole lot with the Flyer line any time soon. It may yet again be up to Mike Wolf to get the ball really rolling in S gauge.

I'm sorry to say (and a lot of people aren't going to like this), but I've about had it with Lionel. It seems that it's all they can do just to keep up with MTH. Now, with the UP suit looming, who knows what's going to happen? All I know is that I'm a fan of prewar trains, and I have a reproduction of a standard gauge 384 steam set on order - and it's not made by Lionel. I was hoping that with the prewar accessories they have been offering (and that I have bought) over the past few years, that Lionel would revive that particular line of trains in a big way. However, the latest catalog does not have any prewar items in it. MTH's does. Guess who's going to be getting my hard-earned cash?

Mike Wolf, are you listening? I believe you have an opportunity here, with S gauge, as well.

[IRONROOSTER]

S gauge has been the ugly step sister in Lionel's product line for years. The major players are AM and SHS. I think KLine is testing the waters. S gauge's future lies in the diversity of the scale; tinplate(hirail), narrow gauge (mainly Sn3, but Sn2 has a following and support), and scale. This site http://www.trainweb.org/crocon/sscale.html has the most information on S scale I've seen. Product development across the scale is the best that it has been in years, but it is still a smaller market than the more popular G, O , HO, and N. This in turn limits the amount of new products that can be absorbed while still keeping the older products viable.
Enjoy
Paul

[3railguy]

S gauge is a great gauge. It is big enough to handle easily, yet small enough for realism. It never caught on like HO or O gauge. Even during the postwar years. The limited selection has some to do with it but the gauge needs more people to make it feasible to increase the variety. It's sort of a catch 22 situation. The cost of S gauge is closer to O gauge than it is to HO so maybe people decide to spend a little more on O gauge. Either people like it big or they like it small. Nothing in between.

[daan]

In Europe we have the TT scale. Something between N and h0, also that scale is in between two populair other scales and there is not much new getting in the market.
That's the problem with it, it's (like S) in between of 2 other very populair scales, and that difference is too small to get feet on solid ground.
The jump between N and h0 is 8x the size, between h0 and 0, 8x the size. Between 0 and G, about 6 times the size..
Each step is a major difference in size, but from N to TT is only 4 times the size. (TT= 1:120) Between h0 and S (1:64?) about 3 times the size.
The difference is too small to make a real difference. It doesn't have an own "face" like N, h0, 0 and G have. The difference between 0 and G is also not that big, but G is a garden railway..

[railfanespee4449]

Lionel has a set, a baldwin switcher, an EP-5, and a pricy 2-8-2 in S gauge. AND a Southern Baldwin trainset